School Race Turns Into Walk for Candidates in Inglewood

MICHELE FUETSCH

At first it looked as if control of the Inglewood school board was up for grabs this year, with three of five seats at stake in the April 6 election.

Instead of a race, though, the contest has turned out to be a walk. Nobody filed to run against incumbent Larry Aubry, meaning that just by putting his name on the ballot he wins another four years on the board of the Inglewood Unified School District. Aubry has been a board member since 1988.

Then, last week, incumbent Joseph T. Rouzan Jr., the city's former police chief and a school board member since 1987, withdrew from the race. Rouzan said he had too much to do in his job as a deputy city manager in Long Beach to devote another four years to Inglewood schools.

That was great news for Dexter A. Henderson, the only person left running against Rouzan.

Rouzan has said he will resign if he wins. The board then would have to appoint a replacement or hold a special election, something Henderson hopes to avert.

Henderson is executive director of the South-Central Los Angeles Regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled, a state-funded nonprofit agency.

Board President Thomasina M. Reed is the third incumbent. An attorney, Reed is being challenged by Mildred Tennyson McNair, a substitute teacher in the Los Angeles school system and a longtime city gadfly who previously has run unsuccessfully for the board.